Johor which is the southern state of Peninsular Malaysia is well, the main gateway that connects our country with Singapore. This would be one of the reasons why many tourists come into and leave the country while many stay in Johor while visiting Singapore on daily trips and such. Hence, there are many accommodation choices ranging from upscale hotels to budget homestays.

Whenever Colours of Lives Travelogue Malaysia head somewhere, one of the accommodation will be a homestays..

Homestays can after all be found in almost every other town within the state.

For this trip, we decided to stay at the Kampung Sagil homestay which is pretty close the famed and mystical Gunung Ledang … I think it was just about 10-15 minutes away from the Gunung Ledang Recreational Park or better known as the Taman Hutan Lagenda…

The mountain is well famed for the legend of the Princess of Moint Ophir/Puteri Gunung Ledang, whereby a beautiful princess spurned the love of the Sultan of Melaka and eventually becomes a fairy and made her home here… it is myth or is it… many people believe that the mountain is sacred and be careful not to insult or stray away from your track as you might risk angering or annoying the invisible fair folks..

We were of at the Taman Hutan Lagenda first where we were taken up the hill on a hike via some concrete steps up to check point 1 by a coiple of rangers there

… it was only up to the first check point and we saw a lot of commandos along the way, and I followed the boys up… but stopped 4/5 of the way…. and waited for them to come down instead…

When they came down, we headed to a waterfall and pool where they had a dip in the lovely shallow pool area….

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It was after this, that we headed to the Kampung Sagil Homestay where we were invited to the hall where we were welcomed with the ladies kompang group and some introduction and snacks.. before shown to our ‘foster’ families…

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Once we have settled down, we headed out to the little creek/stream or was in a monsoon drain where the villagers showed us how to cast a net and catch some fishes there… then two of our team mates, Freeze and also Didin tried their hands casting their net. Didin manage to catch himself a medium sized fish…

We then returned to our foster family’s home where we freshen up and showered before we had some dinner consisting of some ikan sembilang salai lemak cili api/ cat fish which has been smoked and cooked in birds eye chilli coconut gravy…, long beans with tempe, and omelette…

Once dinner was done, we followed our foster father for the day to another smaller hall where the villagers performed the Kemplingan which is normally performed for circumcision ceremonies..an interesting combination of song/ chanting and prayers..

Once that was done, we all got to snack again before returning to our homes for the day… My room mate was Wawa, one of the officers from Tourism Malaysia whereas the room across to us… hmm… does this make them my ‘brothers’… were Aizul, Jaslin and Sean…

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We chit chat and took pictures until it was late and headed off to bed..

In the morning, Ibu made us some roti canai, nasi goreng as well as some multi grain noodles from the Organic Care 2 U noodles we had…

Then it was time to say goodbye,..since we had to move on to our next destination…

Overall, the house was pretty nice and the family was warm and friendly..

Colours of Lives Travelogue Malaysia is organised by Borakkita.com, and supported by Tourism Malaysia.

Special thanks to Tourism Malaysia Johor for accompanying us, and also thanks to Canon Malaysia, Yushaz Car Rental, Kaseh HQ, Avox Streetwear, Marini Naturale Magic, 888tea for being our sponsors and believing in us…